Lie, Cheat and Steal: High School Ethics Surveyed

Lie, Cheat and Steal: High School Ethics Surveyed

More
than the lapse in ethical behavior indicated in the study, two areas
cause me greater concern from this survey: 1) That students are playing
the comparison game in terms of how they rate ethically with their
peers ("I'm better than most people I know,") and 2) Some educators'
take on the situation, namely that "We have to create situations where
it's easy for kids to do the right things."

In
my opinion, kids whose ethical standards are set based on others'
behaviors will always set the bar too low, so cheating, lying and
stealing can be okay if they do it less than their peers. And adults
tasked with helping our kids grow into responsible adults aren't
helping them by trying to make it easier to do the right things. The
adult world is one where people face many difficult choices in order to
do the right thing. Trying to make it easier for students to make
ethical choices doesn't reflect the reality of the real world, and will
make it all the easier for young people to cut corners when they enter
into adulthood.

Like
so many other areas, building an ethical value system within kids
begins at home, with parents who set standards and serve as role models
for strong ethical behaviors.

In the past year, 30
percent of U.S. high school students have stolen from a store and 64
percent have cheated on a test, according to a new, large-scale survey
suggesting that Americans are too apathetic about ethical standards.

"The
competition is greater, the pressures on kids have increased
dramatically," said Mel Riddle of the National Association of Secondary
School Principals. "They have opportunities their predecessors didn't
have (to cheat). The temptation is greater."

The Josephson
Institute, a Los Angeles-based ethics institute, surveyed 29,760
students at 100 randomly selected high schools nationwide, both public
and private. All students in the selected schools were given the survey
in class; their anonymity was assured.

Michael Josephson, the
institute's founder and president, said he was most dismayed by the
findings about theft. The survey found that 35 percent of boys and 26
percent of girls — 30 percent overall — acknowledged stealing from a
store within the past year. One-fifth said they stole something from a
friend; 23 percent said they stole something from a parent or other
relative.

Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse.
Sixty-four percent of students cheated on a test in the past year and
38 percent did so two or more times, up from 60 percent and 35 percent
in a 2006 survey.

Despite such responses, 93 percent of the
students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and
character, and 77 percent affirmed that "when it comes to doing what is
right, I am better than most people I know."

Riddle, who for four
decades was a high school teacher and principal in northern Virginia,
agreed that more pressure could lead to more cheating, yet spoke in
defense of today's students.

"We have to create situations where
it's easy for kids to do the right things," he added. "We need to
create classrooms where learning takes on more importance than having
the right answer."